AGAINST COVETOUSNESS by J. Oswald Dykes

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 28, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 50.

AGAINST COVETOUSNESS.

By J. Oswald Dykes

No divided or impure heart whatever can clearly and steadily see the light of God. But we do not need to be told what a darkening influence is exercised over Christian men by the love of money in particular. We are, unhappily, too familiar with its ravages in the modern church; with disciples, genuine enough, zealous sometimes to a fault, and loud in their profession of Christianity, who nevertheless betray, by the stationariness of their moral character, or by their unconscious perseverance in faulty habits which everyone notices but themselves, or by overlooking very obvious duties lying in their path, that they cannot be walking open-eyed in the light of God.

Christians who, throughout the greater part of life, remain unchastened, ungentle, unmellowed, hardly distinguishable from the utter worldling by reason of their petty, grasping, saving ways, are frequent enough everywhere. Were the cause of such religion to be faithfully inquired after, or could it be plainly told, how often would it prove to be just this—that the real desire of their heart is not bent with single-minded longing upon the attainment of God's approval or of his celestial rewards, but has become diverted to an excessive degree on temporal objects, chained down to earth, and made earthly by the over-eager pursuit of success, or by an over-warm delight in such perishable gains as they have been able to win for themselves in the scramble of business.

With such Christians a reverse process has been going on from that which happened to the converts of Ephesus. The eyes of those hearts at Ephesus were enlightened, so that they saw the riches of God's own inheritance—the celestial wealth destined for children of God in the everlasting kingdom of their Father. But we suffer the dazzle of corrupt gold to fall across our vision, and draw after it the worship of the heart; then our eyes, which were full of Heaven's own light, grow dim again, the celestial glory fades away, the shining crown suspended over Christian heads has leave to hang there unseen, and we toil on to rake together in the dark what is but dust after all, though it be the dust of gold.—J. Oswald Dykes.